From an ongoing feature of the Reanimation Library in which writers ruminate on a book from the library’s collection, this one by Corina Bardoff on The Observer’s Book of Weather:

You could of course read Weather straight through – uncreatively – for sense. It contains gems of information, like, “in very cold weather, where ice crystals are to be found in the lower part of the atmosphere, the refraction produces phenomena known as ‘mock’ suns and moons” – that is, one or two mirage suns or moons, perched on a halo around the sun/moon, like a chemistry textbook diagram of electrons orbiting a nucleus. These are also called sundogs, a term rewarded by a Google image search. You could read Weather straight through looking for bits like this, but I’m afraid that you would drastically reduce the book’s potentiality that way. Instead, why not try reading the book as if it contained encrypted messages circa WWII, so that if we happen to learn in the course of our cryptographic studies that “the limit of twilight” is about 49 miles high, won’t that be lovelier because of it? Or won’t you feel that this “limit of twilight” is suspect, and isn’t that a wonderful uncertainty that you created for yourself?

PHILADELPHIA- Tiger Strikes Asteroid is pleased to announce the opening of our June exhibition, Intramural: Curated by Rachael Gorchov and Caroline Santa

The idea for this show was sparked during a visit between the studios of its co-curators, TSA member Caroline Santa and Rachael Gorchov as they discussed the “messy edges” of their studios.

“In the gallery space, we usually see a resolved package. As artists, we want to present a streamlined idea. This clarity requires hours of fooling around with books, TV, the internet, or little projects. This show highlights work that provides a window into this process. The solitary Intramural activities artists participate in, investing time, energy, and materials into an idea that might not become anything more…These intramural works can be viewed as research, play, blurry glimpses into masterworks or harbingers of new creative directions.”

Thanks to Hope Ginsburg and her Time Studio students at VCU for making WEATHER MASS MOVEMENT, a participatory stop-action animation of Hurricane Irene, come to life in the Sponge HQ in VCU’s Anderson Gallery.

This is the first in a planned series of stop-motion videos illustrating changes in the sky that take place over time.

We had an amazing experience working & learning with the group; more photos from the footage we’re still processing – and our talk at Saturday’s pancake breakfast online here and below.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Here is our QUICK overview in a 2-min video–the first 1.5 min is the making-of super fast, the last approx 20 seconds is the resulting hurricane animation.

During a workshop at VCUarts April 19-21, SP Weather Station will collaborate with students in Hope Ginsburg’s Time Studio course to stage Weather Mass Movement, a collectively constructed time lapse animation of Hurricane Irene’s progress along the Atlantic Coast from August 20-29, 2011. This is the first in a planned series of stop-motion videos illustrating changes in the sky that take place over time. Following the student workshops on April 19th, SP Weather Station will present photos and video of this work-in-progress and discusses past works by SPWS and its collaborators that find new ways to represent or reflect upon weather data and unseen natural forces.

Today is the first round kickoff of the Weather Channel’s Weather Song Tournament, with 16 matchups, 8 in the “sun region” and 8 more in the “elements region”, as part of a 3-week effort to determine the all-time favorite weather song. Check out the bracket–some tough choices await–can we really choose between the Sesame Street theme and Elton John’s ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me’?

We’re happy to report that in the fall, visiting professor Susan Mills assigned SP Weather Station’s data to her Art of The Book course at Pratt Institute as the inspiration for their final semester project. The projects were on display at Pratt’s library; below are a few examples of the array of works. Course participants: Michelle Park, Jennifer Crain, Mina Park, Natalia Panzer, Sarah Silverman, Cristina Willenbury Castillo, Andrea Paradis, Graham Yarrington, Brigit Barret.

Temperatures illustrated in a concertina binding—

A paint dot-matrix, where position, color and size of paint mark are correlated to the data—

A rain measuring system, where turning the cylinder creates a rain-like sound—

An accordion book featuring a weatherman giving his forecast on different days and times—

Looking at one book with different colored glasses reveals different aspects of the data—

Thanks Susan for including SPWS data in the course and for the installation photos!

SPWS Weather Interpreter (January 2012) Rena Leinberger’s new work, When it opens like this, up is not over, was presented on Friday under the Queensborough Bridge, at the junction of Queensboro Plaza and Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City. The works will be installed until October 31 of this year–check it out–Congratulations Rena!

When it opens like this, up is not over, is a temporary site-specific work installed on a 50-foot fence that conceals the Manhattan skyline. The photographs below were taken by SPWS at the official unveiling on February 3, 2012; the work was commissioned by the New York City Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Urban Art Program and International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP). More information at Rena’s website: www.renaleinberger.com.

BMW apologized after a PR strategy to pay for the naming rights to a weather system backfired — that system turned into the deep freeze that’s claimed dozens of lives across Europe.

The goal was to promote BMW’s Mini Cooper brand by paying Germany’s meteorological office 299 euros ($392) to name a system “Cooper” — a practice in place since 2002 to help fund weather monitoring work in Germany. Unfortunately for BMW, the system it was assigned to turned out to be a killer.

“Of course we are sorry. It was not intentional, you cannot tell in advance what a weather system will do,” a company spokeswoman told The Independent of London.